Space International

 (…) People warn us dim-witted Africans about China all the time. What I find amusing – I no longer have the energy for anger – is the fact that these words of wisdom always come from Europeans and Americans and South Africans who are part of the Western sphere of influence. There are many ironies that are lost on these people. Because they are too numerous to mention, I will share just a few. Firstly, it is extremely problematic that, as a man who has spent almost half a cen- tury on this planet, I thought, for most of that time, that the English-speaking parts of the West were the philosophical, cultural and economic centre of the universe. This is a product of centuries of cultural and economic domination which, in many cases, was imposed violently.

Secondly, I did not experience China as a hegemon. It is America and Europe that imposed themselves and their ways on us.

Thirdly, my experience of the hegemony of the West has largely been that of a gap between its liberal democratic aesthetic and the moral content of its relations with the ‘Third World’…

(…) Tunisia is a small country of 10.5 million, with 4.4 million registered voters. Astonishingly, almost all those registered voters went to the polls on Sunday, with an estimated turnout of 80- 90%. The thirst for democracy demonstrated by such a statistic is mind-boggling. 

(…) Half the candidates put forward for seats by the parties have to be women.

Tunisia’s censorship bureau, the “Ministry of Information,” was abolished last spring, and the press and television is relatively free and lively.  The most-watched television station is a fierce critic of the interim prime minister. Tunisia is the only Arab country without state censorship.

foreignaffairsmagazine:

Several months after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Alastair Smith and Alejandro Quiroz Flores wrote an article in Foreign Affairs about natural disasters and how political systems play a major part in preparedness and, consequently, death tolls.

The central thesis was that, independent of wealth, democracies like Chile, Japan, India, and the United States are inherently better at preparing for disasters.

“Governments cannot prevent earthquakes and other natural disasters, but they can prepare for them and ameliorate their effects. Measures to do so are well known. That so many countries in earthquake-prone regions of the world fail to adequately regulate construction, for example, seems to defy logic. Yet when faced with a choice to insist on the use of reliable cement in construction projects or to award contracts to cronies who are less inclined to use safe materials, politicians too often choose the latter, with disastrous consequences.”

With the earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan, the government’s infrastructure and disaster planning will be put to the test. Will the argument that democratic political structures mitigate natural tragedies hold up?